VE-Day military parades held in 24 Russian cities

A total of 38,000 enlisted men and officers, about 850 military vehicles and 68 warplanes and helicopters took part in the parades

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MOSCOW, May 9 (Itar-Tass) - Military parades on the occasion of VE-Day, which is the main public holiday in the Russian Federation, were held in 24 cities Thursday.

“A total of 38,000 enlisted men and officers, about 850 military vehicles and 68 warplanes and helicopters took part in the parades,” the Defense Ministry’s press service said.

The main march-past of troupes and defense technologies was held on Red Square in Moscow. It involved more than 11,000 servicemen from military bases and educational institutions reporting to the Defense Ministry and other ministries and departments ensuring law and order.

“The parade on Red Square also involved 101 units of technology and 68 aircraft and helicopters,” the report said.

When Moscow and the European regions of Russia were still asleep, first parades were held in the cities of the Far East - Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Chita, Ulan-Ude, and Belogorsk - with about 7,000 servicemen and more than a hundred units of technology taking part in them.

More than 3,500 servicemen participated in parades in the cities located on the territory of the Central Military District - Yekaterinburg, Samara and Novosibirsk.

In the Southern Military District, parades were held in Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Vladikavkaz, Astrakhan, Novorossiysk, and Stavropol. They involved about 8,000 servicemen and 200 military vehicles all in all.

Russian and Ukrainian naval forces deployed in Sevastopol held a joint parade.

Apart from Moscow, military parades were held in another seven cities in the Western Military Districts - St Petersburg, Murmansk, Severomorsk, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novogorod, Tula, and Smolensk.

“The manpower they involved totaled more than 19,000 servicemen and more than 300 units of technology,” the press service said.

In addition to this, gala march-pasts were held on the Russian military bases in Tajikistan, Armenia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia.